Yes it is. Pretty much stupidity is defined by acting without thinking, or letting others tell you what to do and just following the directions blindly. One issue we have now is people traveling without taking any personal responsibility. The car will protect you if you get into an accident. The GPS will tell where to go, where to turn. there is little presumption that the driver has to be intelligent.
No one should just follow a GPS. Everyone should make an effort to combine the GPS with a certain amount of critical thinking. I will admit that there has been a time or two when I did an ended up in unnecessarily risky situations. Any who does not take GPS data with a grain of salt probably does other risky things elsewhere. We cannot protect everyone from all the dangers.
So that is interesting. Some GPS receivers have software errors that all bad input to brick them. It is no surprising because on thing that too many automated systems do not protect against is malicious input. This is, however, the sort of thing that be handled by a software update, if a GPS is capable of such a thing.
My feeling that MS, desperate to make the new platform relevant, probably desperately lobbied developer of hit games to port them to the surface. Who knows what promises were made vis a vis cross marketing and the like. One might be lead to expect such support as MS is known for such things. Then, when it did not happen, one can imagine that someone who spent $10K under the assumptions that certain things would happen would be quite angry.
I also imagine that if we do not see some marketing out of MS, then we can assume that MS just gave him a wad of cash to shut up.
IIRC, this was the conclusion from a year ago. Is the current article just rehashing old news, or is there some new development. I thought the thermal anisotropy was the established explanation?
So this just appears to be the Apple iOS for enterprise. You can deliver code to only those who you choose. It seems like Google wants to be Apple.
What would be interesting is an enterprise device in which apps and updates could be pushed automatically, and users only allowed to use those specified apps. Surely Google could fork Android to make such a divice, rather than create this lame kludge. I mean, isn't the point of Android that it is open and can run any App? Can't firms just place in-house Apps on secure servers and let employees download off the intranet? Don't employers have control of their employees anymore? I mean if you give an employee a phone, just make it clear that they can't download unauthorized Apps.
I take a different tact. Shifts in power provide checks and balances to insure that one groups entitlements and kickbacks do not become permanent policy. Yucca mountain is a boondoggle that effectively outsource the cost of waste delivery to the taxpayer. Yes I know that the nuclear energy companies put money into a fund. Yes I know that most will claim that nuclear power companies pay for all expenses. But even if that is the case now, history says it at some point future tax payers will get stuck with the costs. We see this in the superfund which has been not been funded by industry for almost over 15 years. Congress has been appropriating tax payer money for 10 years.
The issue with Yucca mountain is simply that nuclear power is not economical, meaning that given other sources and the fact that nuclear fuel cannot just put in landfill or the atmosphere, it cannot compete. Now, if we had a large carbon tax, nuclear would likely become economical. Even so, there would still a huge issue with waste. Reprocessing can handle part of the problems, but not the entire problem. The problem would have to be solved by the industry, which is not even willing to build nuclear power plants without government handouts. One solution? Buy some island, build secure infrastructure, place the waste there. It would be expensive, and would have national security implications, but that will always be the case with spent nuclear fuel.
So the real issues. How much are the nuclear power firms going to be able to con the taxpayers out of given the current political climate. How much are the politicians going to use the national security issue to thwart reasonable solution so that taxpayers can be hoodwinked. How much are the current power providers going to fight to not live under the rules that everyone else does. At the time many people saw yucca mountain as a silly idea. There was interesting science in it, but I don't think anyone was really thinking it would ever happen. It was a fantasy put forth so that we were confortable that the spent nuclear fuel would be eventually disposed.
When I choose a tool my question is whether it gets the job done for me for a reasonable cost, not whether other people like it or if the numbers are good. For instance, on the desktop i still use Camino . It is not going to be the best in terms of numbers, and there are things it can't do, but for everyday work it is good. And I have no problem keeping several browsers on my computer and switching when I need to. The right tool for the job and all that.
I do use Chrome, particularly when I use Google Docs for collaborative work, but there are use cases where Google fails, so it cannot be my primary Office Suite. MS Office does not provide good value for what I do, so although it would win any contest, I do not use it.
In terms of the iPad, I have tried other browsers but the numbers do not work for me. Safari is good enough and automagically syncs my bookmarks from my desktop. Yes, I know that other browsers will do this, but that is the major concern for me. Safari works.
This reminds me when people ask me why I shop at a store where the selection is not as great as another store. I say it is because I am not primarily concerned about selection. As long they have the stuff that I want and the quality that I want, I am happy. The other store may have stuff I occasionally need, but that does not mean I have to shop there all the time. I don't want more stuff, just nicer stuff, and I do not see that the other side of the fence always provides nicer stuff.
It is a good idea period. As far as I am concerned those who are not wiling to put down a few bucks to help us learn from the past is simply playing a political game to accomplish two things.
First is the realization that war and fighting is not a game. Some like it to be, especially conservatives, because they can con the American people into paying huge sums to watch the game. If we admit we occasionally cannot but war games, but occasionally have to go in solve problems, then people get squeamish. The have no problems killing off Afgani children a few at a time if it creates job, but if we actually have to go and have a real war, no one wants to do that. It is horrible, but there is no use denying reality.
Second is the power of science. It was not religion or faith that was instrumental in ending WWII. Faith starts wars, Physics ends them. Faith continues the fighting, physics creates superior power to end problems that are not readily solved. These are not monuments to strongly held personal beliefs, like so many other are. They talk about the civil war monuments. Those are glorifying people were willing to die for a belief. I once believed that reebok pumps were the greatest shoes in the world, should I do die for them and then build a monument? But who is going to build a monument to the superiority of science, to the fact that refrigeration and lasers make life much more easier than any faith could have imagined.
So let me make one pitch for one unique museum that unabashedly celebrates the contributions of science. The National Museum of Nuclear Science and History. Poorly funded, not well enough known, and absolutely directed in it's mission. Located in Albuquerque not far from Los Alamos, the trinity site and many other important sites in the region. Add a Museum at 109 W Palace Ave, and expand the Bradbury museum, and you have a good start on reflecting on the importance of the time.
Exactly. Wages have to due with such things as barriers to entry, need and ability to supervise, as well as skill set. Importance of job seldom has anything to do with it. For example, executive officers are not necessarily paid well because they have important jobs, but because they they are dishonest, cannot be effectively supervised, and so they are paid high amounts to not screw the firm.
Cleaning staff, however, can be easily supervised, intimidated, and if they do not do a good job the repercussions are limited. There is also a low barrier to such a job.
What I think has happened, particularly in the past 10 years, is that software used to track IT resources has become very sophisticated. It has made it possible for the real software development to be executed by the average person. It has also allowed automated supervision IT staff. More business rules are encoded in the management packages.. In the 80's and 90's one had to have trust that the person who was working IT. Now the tools are there to not only check on the developer daily, but automated difficult tasks.
So just like any other industry, automation has made highly skilled workers redundant. We no longer need a tailor to make our clothes. Anybody off the street can cook your food. Modern check out registers means that we no longer need have trust in our cashiers. And since so much IT is simply clicking icons and plugging things into other things, with measures taken to insure they cannot be plugged in wrong, there is really no reason a semi-literate person off the street can't be successful with minimal training.
What is going to get 3D printers banned is the ability to make small plastic parts to repair expensive household appliances and cars for $30 instead of paying $100.
Or the ability to print custom Disney products without paying a license fee. This a Millennium Falcon.
The fake 2nd amendment promoter, think the NRA, will go after this because it will be a way for them to make their toys while keeping the real weapons that might defend our liberty off limits.
Polio does not kill. It requires intensive hospital stays, and can result in paralysis lasting from a few days to a lifetime. of course if you are paralyzed you get government help for the rest of your life. Those who reject vaccines, like those who wear motorcycle helmets, are not necessarily financially independent enough to cover all expenses themselves. They all too often go to the public teat to get funds for their "accident".
This is one of those many issue in the US that arrive from our irrational dedication to the so-called free market and the lack of dedication to the free market to allow people who do not show net productivity to exit.
There is difference between reading for entertainment or information, and reading a retail agreement. The former is what one does in free time, and can increase retail sales, the later is what one does to complete a sale and can decrease retail sales. Take the magazine at the check out line. You may read it, in the free time while one waits in line, and then buy it, thus reveling in the wonderful superiority of the free market. OTOH, if one spent all you time reading lables and agreeing to license agreements, while you might be entertained or informed and your free time might be consumed, it would do little good for the retail outlet as the purpose of the such a place is to maximize the time you spend buying goods and services, not provide pass time in the store.
In fact pass time is so expensive for retail outlets we have seen malls, which at one time could provide profits, being tuning into very large 2 dimensional strip centers.
So, as I have argued before, the problem with things like this is that it reduces the efficiency of the retail process to such a point that it effects the ability to make a profit. Look at online advertising. The problem is not ad rates, the problem is that delivery and consumption of the products are inefficient due to all the layers that wastes the consumers time.
There are couple things here to put pensions in context.
First, pension such as these are specifically created to engender employee loyalty when one cannot do so by immediate compensation. So pensions defer compensation. Often the employee and employer contribute. Contribution is not a complex thing. It just requires the will to pay what was promised. Just like all those homeowners who bought at elevated prices. The banks still want them to pay. Pensions are the same thing. Firm and governments that do not commit fraud just have to keep the pension money in place.
Second, it is evident that pensions were negotiated to keep wages low while money was clearly available to pay workers, but were used instead to pay executives. For example, the head coach at U of Illinois to reportedly guaranteed 1.4 million dollars a year. If he screws up and get fired he will be eligible for millions of dollars to buy out his contract. I will repeat, unlike any other employee at a university if he fails he gets paid to fail. Now, I don't mind him getting paid, but if the state has no money, let him get paid on commission. Pay him whatever a lecturer gets at the university. If he meets goals then pay him more. Make the incentives require growth in revenue, not doing a bad job so that you get free money. But by blaming pensions, and not excessive pay for people who aren't required to do work, one can continue with a system that rewards insiders.
Pensions are also popular in situations of high inflation. A pension plan can result in lower payments to employees than if they were compensated in full in the first place. For instance, I put in 10 dollars and the company puts in 5 in 1975. I retire in 2000. In 2010 they are still paying my a pension. However, the 15 dollars that was put in in 1975. is now worth $4. Of course inflation is not as high as it once was, so pensions are now worth more than they once were, which is why some are in trouble. They assumed high inflation.
However,inflation still works to the benefit of the state. For example a teacher working 25 years who retired in 2000 with a salary of 50K might have a retirement of 40K. In most cases, states are no adjusting for inflation, so that teacher has seen her real pay fall to 30K. Current teachers are still paying in at current real dollars. School executives are still paid in real dollars with real bonuses that are paid immediately in real dollars, not deferred inflation reduced payments. So where is the problem?
Kodak was the first to use a CCD to capture an image. They were not the first to manufacture a digital camera, and they were certainly not the one's who created the software to make a quality image using relatively low quality optics, as the did with film cameras.
And where is the profit in manufacturing cheap cameras? Kodak had to limit personal CEO jet travel to 100k a year. These are the things that one is talking about when keeping a company like Kodak afloat. It was a big old style US corporation. It was there to make globs of money that it could then flush down the toilet.
When I say there is nothing Kodak could have done, I don't mean they could not have come out a with a product. What I mean is the model was based on selling consumables at a huge profit, then pissing that profit away. There was no way for them to make those profits on the cheap cameras they sold. They have not, for a long time,like Nikon or Canon with a tradition or selling $10,000 cameras. Kodaks innovation was the Advantix.
There was little Kodak or Polaroid could do. Technology just made the mass market of what they where selling irrelevant. Expensive instant photography is meaningless with camera phones and instant [s][t]exting. Kodaks mass product, easy snaps that produce high quality are not going to compete when software can create superior images with inferior hardware and no consumables.
This was not competing with free or irrelevance due to a a change in power source. This was a complete hange in relationship to a product. Even if cameras were still not in phones, and cost $200, Kodak would still be toast. It is not economical to buy film and pay for prints that last a life time when one can print the stuff you want on demand for an equal cost, if you want.
The reason Kodak and Polaroid failed is the reason that firms should fail. They get too big and sales can't support the inefficiencies. The products are still in demand,,just not at the same volumes. If we would allow and encourage such companies to fail, things might be much better.
I work through a lot of papers on my iPad. Most documents, including MS Word, pop up and I can read them. I haven't bought a PDF markup App yet, but they are available. Of course the iPad is heavy.
The kindle fire may be an option. I have had limited luck with the FIre as Amazon seems to want to sell books, so I have not used as much for reading my work stuff.
The iPad mini is certainly a better form factor, lighter than many tablets, and maybe even has a large enough screen to read for older eyes. Of course, there are many android tablets that can say the same. In the end, the infrastructure for reading on a tablet exists. The only question is finding one that is confortable for individual use.
Let me say this as nicely as I can. 59% of rural votes went for Romeny. In my state, while Obama won the urban counties, the win in many rural counties was way North of 60%. Now, what were they voting for. Were they voting for smaller government and lower taxes, or just voting against minorities who steal tax dollars. I don't know, but the reality is that these people voting for a candidate who did not support the federal government building infrastructure that makes the US urban areas strong. So why do they expect the urban people to pay taxes so they can get cheap calls?
And cheap calls is all it is. They want to pay the same as everyone else. Look, I spent a lot of time living in rural areas in the US and elsewhere. I know the issues. I know the costs. But I am not asking anyone else to pay costs that I choose in incur. In other countries you have phone service. You just pay for a cell phone. And if you have to you pay for a booster station. That is all there is too it. There are very few areas in the US that have no cell reception, and I am sure most would work with a booster. Hell, in my house I don't have good cell reception. Do I go to the feds and demand a personal booster?
If you want reliable phone, do what others have done. Form a cooperative. Pull fiber to the community, and then have the individuals pull wire to their properties. Say this is too expensive, say that the feds should pay for it? Well them maybe you should vote for a liberal government who will tax enough to fund it?
What I feel is really funny is that somehow taxpayers are expected to foot the bill so that people can just pick up the phone whenever they want to just to chat, and we are expected to pay for that entitlement. Give me a break. When I was growing up we often did not talk to our extended family. Why? Because it was expensive and we could not afford it. Maybe once a week on sunday morning, but that was it. I guess we had the advantage is that we were literate so we wrote letters.
I normally am much more receptive to these complaints. We are a rich country so we should have universal reliable communication, health care, education, transportation, teleportation, rib eye, Helly Hansen clothing, but given that those people just voted in great majority against it, it seems a little over the top.
DRM has not done this. In terms of music, DRM created a situation in which hapless dominated the market and could kill the album. Now some may say it saved music from free, but in singles were free like music videos and radio once was, lwe mat still have album sales. No one knows because every freaked instead of looking for other market solutions, so music is worth nothing now.
DRM for books is the reason Amazon know has control of the publishing and authors get paid what Amazon wants. Amazon put DRM on the kindle, Amazon made it difficult to put other books on the kindle, so kindle owners are tied to Amazon, and the kindle software expands that to most e reading. Publishers and authors have little control over revenue. Without DRM control goes to the right holders.
We see this movies. Blu ray and DVD is a format in which the end user does not own anything. If you don't have a player for the region you can't play it. Backups are nontrivial. Online copies can only be played on certain devices and are stored only online. So streaming is the thing, or renting, which tends to enrich a third party not the right holders. Who would not pay a bit for a movie that can play on VLC or stream to a tv. I would. But I am not going to pay for something that could be disabled at any time.
In this case the fact is that the guy was an FBI agent was just a random happenstance. Equipment that he did not own was used for illegal activity. It is like if one was borrowing a school bus to transport drugs on the assumption that no one would suspect a school bus. Does the FBI need permission from you to inspect the school bus owned by the school? I wouldn't think so. If a kid were being raped in a classroom, would the cops need probably cause or the rapist permission to enter? No, it is a school, they can enter. I suppose we would be defending the rapist for shooting a teacher who entered the classroom to see what the commotion is?
I try to be very careful about what I use other's equipment for. When I was younger I was less careful about computers, but then when i was younger there was not 10 years of ruling saying that there is no expectation for privacy if you use employers stuff. For instance, is there anything to stop your employer from listening to your telephone calls on phones the employer owns and pays for the operations. Not really. So we bring cell phones to work that we pay for completely. There is no ambiguity if an employer taps a personal phone.
Stories like this are important because it reminds us that using things we don't own for questionable purposes is not really such a good idea. Clearly older people, who grew up in a time maybe when assets were not tracked as carefully as they are today, or younger people who have not learned how carefully things can be tracked, need to hear this lesson. Clearly some believe that that you can steal equipment, use it for illegal activity, and still deserve the full protection of the law.
Suppose you are in a high school physics class, AP, IB, whatever, have talked about Newton's laws of gravity, and are now are discussing Modern Physics. If one is going to be complete, one has to talk about the corrections to this law of newton, along with rest of the laws(mass is not a constant at all speeds), so one talks about black holes. Now, secular god hating science says that in a black hole there is so much mass in so little volume that space-time is infinitely warped. Light, for instance, follows an infinite path that it will never escape. Not only that, but as matter is pulled in the path becomes more infinite. Now, as unbelievable as this is, most will teach it as a absolute fact and not even crack a smile at the increduability of the situation.
Of course a few god loving and brave physics teachers will state the obvious and state the infinite is reserved only for the devine, that math and science has never accepted infinity as result. Therefore, black holes indicate the foolishness of General Relativity and alternative theories must be put forth. So-called black holes are clearly part of the divine plan to cause the ultimate rapture as prophesied in the bible. This result from Relativity, like radio carbon dating, clearly indicates the ultimate inability of science to characterize the godly world, and therefore ultimate irrelevance to godly life.
Any physics teachers out there, and any parents who want their kids to have hope for their souls, must teach the controversy. This is the only way to ensure that salvation and proper science wins.
stealing sales from Wintel ultrabooks doesn't really help Microsoft
MS has been bringing more services in house. With Windows 8 and surface there is a definite vibe that it is ready to be a full system builder. Traditionally the hardware OEM has been a lucrative business only because of volumen and MS kickbacks, but perhaps MS thinks it can do better. There is really no indication that MS is pushing Surface to third party OEM, and some indication that it is more than willing to let them fail. So, yes, there may be great benefit to MS for Ultra books to fail. MS may think it can do better on MS Surface.
The mode is tablet use it untethered. That is why it is important to have many hours of use. Plug it in overnight, then use off and on all day. Tablets are also made to be used anywhere, which is why they do not have keyboards. As usual MS believes that the current use of Tablets is silly, and is creating a slightly modified product category. A tethered tablet with keyboard.
This will appeal to some people, like the thousand button mouse that so many like. However, for most work, a well designed single button mouse or track pad is just as usable if the software is designed for it. I can't imagine why I would want to have a tablet if most of my work required a tablet though. I bought a keyboard for my iPad, but seldom used it as I prefer the efficient laptop.
I bought some laptops in October/November. The salesperson said that laptops were flying off the shelf due to the incoming MS Windows 8. Everyone wanted to make sure they had a MS Windows 7 laptop. The salesmen statements were supported by the number of shopping in the laptop section of the store and the number of machines that were sold out. Normally at this location they have very good stock.
It was also funny because one machine bought had a special upgrade coupon to MS Windows 8(which is superflous as all machines bought recently can be upgraded, which makes me suspicious about the upgrade licensee as every who bought a computer recently can go for the free upgrade even if they do not use it). So we were told to keep the coupon even if we were not going to use it, just in case. It seems that most shopper were not even interested in the free upgrade.
I am still mostly on XP. It would nice to move to 7 as I like it quite a bit. But the rule of MS is that every other major upgrade is trash.
MS is the cheap OS. It is a large scale committee OS that gives the same level of lameness to everyone. If you need a bunch of workhorses that are going to work but not cost a lot, then MS Windows is the way to go. That is the MS market. Like Walmart. No one can make it cheaper, just less like shopping in the desperate market of some developing country .
The thing is with Windows 8 there is a opportunity to place a superior OS on commodity hardware. Dell, being a relatively competent system builder, i.e. not a Gateway that just puts parts that fell off the back of a truck into a case, could create such an OS. The OS will really just be layers on top of Linux coupled with a nice GUI and well integrated application, but it could be enough to provide some competition, and provide some stability for those who do not want to move to phrenetic squares that keep people from productive work.
Really HP would be better, and it could be the one thing that saves it from oblivion, but some one needs to do it now. And they need to be paid. Whoever does will not be geting kickback from MS or the annoyware vendors, so the consumer is going to have to pay up.Of course the likleyhood of the average OSS person paying $50(in this case about 3%) more is about the same as them buying a a *nix based Macbook, since really to most people OSS is free beer, not freedom, but there we go. We will be stuck with MS, and everyone will be complaining, because it isn't worth $50 to have something better.
They presumably are getting significant license fees from MS Surface. It may be that they will charge $25 for these updates, or follow Apple in giving away the updates. Also not that when one pays for an update from Apple, or most software from the App store, it can be installed on any machine that in under your Apple account. The App store being iOS or Mac OS.
For the PC, right now a MS Windows 8 Pro upgrade for anything MS Windows Xp or newer is under $70. If they expect users to upgrade every year then $25 is about the right price. It will even the cash flow from upgrades and at the end of the day provide comparable cash.
I believe that the previous pricing structure for MS Windows was to encourage consumers and small bussiness to buy new machines rather than upgrade software. There was a time when an MS upgrade would be $200 while a new machine might be around $500. With MS clearly more willing to annoy the HP and Dells of the world, they can change this pricing. Anyway, who knows how much the 'real' 'full' version is going to cost. It could still be $100.
What I am waiting to see if MS will begin to give away a fully integrated MS Visual Studio. RIght now the breaking up of the Express pieces is just childish. I am not saying they should not have versions that are not $1000+, but expecting to overtake Apples with cheap apps when the cheapest real version costs $500 is just insane.
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No one should just follow a GPS. Everyone should make an effort to combine the GPS with a certain amount of critical thinking. I will admit that there has been a time or two when I did an ended up in unnecessarily risky situations. Any who does not take GPS data with a grain of salt probably does other risky things elsewhere. We cannot protect everyone from all the dangers.
I guess win one for smartphones.
I also imagine that if we do not see some marketing out of MS, then we can assume that MS just gave him a wad of cash to shut up.
IIRC, this was the conclusion from a year ago. Is the current article just rehashing old news, or is there some new development. I thought the thermal anisotropy was the established explanation?
What would be interesting is an enterprise device in which apps and updates could be pushed automatically, and users only allowed to use those specified apps. Surely Google could fork Android to make such a divice, rather than create this lame kludge. I mean, isn't the point of Android that it is open and can run any App? Can't firms just place in-house Apps on secure servers and let employees download off the intranet? Don't employers have control of their employees anymore? I mean if you give an employee a phone, just make it clear that they can't download unauthorized Apps.
The issue with Yucca mountain is simply that nuclear power is not economical, meaning that given other sources and the fact that nuclear fuel cannot just put in landfill or the atmosphere, it cannot compete. Now, if we had a large carbon tax, nuclear would likely become economical. Even so, there would still a huge issue with waste. Reprocessing can handle part of the problems, but not the entire problem. The problem would have to be solved by the industry, which is not even willing to build nuclear power plants without government handouts. One solution? Buy some island, build secure infrastructure, place the waste there. It would be expensive, and would have national security implications, but that will always be the case with spent nuclear fuel.
So the real issues. How much are the nuclear power firms going to be able to con the taxpayers out of given the current political climate. How much are the politicians going to use the national security issue to thwart reasonable solution so that taxpayers can be hoodwinked. How much are the current power providers going to fight to not live under the rules that everyone else does. At the time many people saw yucca mountain as a silly idea. There was interesting science in it, but I don't think anyone was really thinking it would ever happen. It was a fantasy put forth so that we were confortable that the spent nuclear fuel would be eventually disposed.
I do use Chrome, particularly when I use Google Docs for collaborative work, but there are use cases where Google fails, so it cannot be my primary Office Suite. MS Office does not provide good value for what I do, so although it would win any contest, I do not use it.
In terms of the iPad, I have tried other browsers but the numbers do not work for me. Safari is good enough and automagically syncs my bookmarks from my desktop. Yes, I know that other browsers will do this, but that is the major concern for me. Safari works.
This reminds me when people ask me why I shop at a store where the selection is not as great as another store. I say it is because I am not primarily concerned about selection. As long they have the stuff that I want and the quality that I want, I am happy. The other store may have stuff I occasionally need, but that does not mean I have to shop there all the time. I don't want more stuff, just nicer stuff, and I do not see that the other side of the fence always provides nicer stuff.
First is the realization that war and fighting is not a game. Some like it to be, especially conservatives, because they can con the American people into paying huge sums to watch the game. If we admit we occasionally cannot but war games, but occasionally have to go in solve problems, then people get squeamish. The have no problems killing off Afgani children a few at a time if it creates job, but if we actually have to go and have a real war, no one wants to do that. It is horrible, but there is no use denying reality.
Second is the power of science. It was not religion or faith that was instrumental in ending WWII. Faith starts wars, Physics ends them. Faith continues the fighting, physics creates superior power to end problems that are not readily solved. These are not monuments to strongly held personal beliefs, like so many other are. They talk about the civil war monuments. Those are glorifying people were willing to die for a belief. I once believed that reebok pumps were the greatest shoes in the world, should I do die for them and then build a monument? But who is going to build a monument to the superiority of science, to the fact that refrigeration and lasers make life much more easier than any faith could have imagined.
So let me make one pitch for one unique museum that unabashedly celebrates the contributions of science. The National Museum of Nuclear Science and History. Poorly funded, not well enough known, and absolutely directed in it's mission. Located in Albuquerque not far from Los Alamos, the trinity site and many other important sites in the region. Add a Museum at 109 W Palace Ave, and expand the Bradbury museum, and you have a good start on reflecting on the importance of the time.
Cleaning staff, however, can be easily supervised, intimidated, and if they do not do a good job the repercussions are limited. There is also a low barrier to such a job.
What I think has happened, particularly in the past 10 years, is that software used to track IT resources has become very sophisticated. It has made it possible for the real software development to be executed by the average person. It has also allowed automated supervision IT staff. More business rules are encoded in the management packages.. In the 80's and 90's one had to have trust that the person who was working IT. Now the tools are there to not only check on the developer daily, but automated difficult tasks.
So just like any other industry, automation has made highly skilled workers redundant. We no longer need a tailor to make our clothes. Anybody off the street can cook your food. Modern check out registers means that we no longer need have trust in our cashiers. And since so much IT is simply clicking icons and plugging things into other things, with measures taken to insure they cannot be plugged in wrong, there is really no reason a semi-literate person off the street can't be successful with minimal training.
Or the ability to print custom Disney products without paying a license fee. This a Millennium Falcon.
The fake 2nd amendment promoter, think the NRA, will go after this because it will be a way for them to make their toys while keeping the real weapons that might defend our liberty off limits.
This is one of those many issue in the US that arrive from our irrational dedication to the so-called free market and the lack of dedication to the free market to allow people who do not show net productivity to exit.
In fact pass time is so expensive for retail outlets we have seen malls, which at one time could provide profits, being tuning into very large 2 dimensional strip centers.
So, as I have argued before, the problem with things like this is that it reduces the efficiency of the retail process to such a point that it effects the ability to make a profit. Look at online advertising. The problem is not ad rates, the problem is that delivery and consumption of the products are inefficient due to all the layers that wastes the consumers time.
First, pension such as these are specifically created to engender employee loyalty when one cannot do so by immediate compensation. So pensions defer compensation. Often the employee and employer contribute. Contribution is not a complex thing. It just requires the will to pay what was promised. Just like all those homeowners who bought at elevated prices. The banks still want them to pay. Pensions are the same thing. Firm and governments that do not commit fraud just have to keep the pension money in place.
Second, it is evident that pensions were negotiated to keep wages low while money was clearly available to pay workers, but were used instead to pay executives. For example, the head coach at U of Illinois to reportedly guaranteed 1.4 million dollars a year. If he screws up and get fired he will be eligible for millions of dollars to buy out his contract. I will repeat, unlike any other employee at a university if he fails he gets paid to fail. Now, I don't mind him getting paid, but if the state has no money, let him get paid on commission. Pay him whatever a lecturer gets at the university. If he meets goals then pay him more. Make the incentives require growth in revenue, not doing a bad job so that you get free money. But by blaming pensions, and not excessive pay for people who aren't required to do work, one can continue with a system that rewards insiders.
Pensions are also popular in situations of high inflation. A pension plan can result in lower payments to employees than if they were compensated in full in the first place. For instance, I put in 10 dollars and the company puts in 5 in 1975. I retire in 2000. In 2010 they are still paying my a pension. However, the 15 dollars that was put in in 1975. is now worth $4. Of course inflation is not as high as it once was, so pensions are now worth more than they once were, which is why some are in trouble. They assumed high inflation.
However,inflation still works to the benefit of the state. For example a teacher working 25 years who retired in 2000 with a salary of 50K might have a retirement of 40K. In most cases, states are no adjusting for inflation, so that teacher has seen her real pay fall to 30K. Current teachers are still paying in at current real dollars. School executives are still paid in real dollars with real bonuses that are paid immediately in real dollars, not deferred inflation reduced payments. So where is the problem?
And where is the profit in manufacturing cheap cameras? Kodak had to limit personal CEO jet travel to 100k a year. These are the things that one is talking about when keeping a company like Kodak afloat. It was a big old style US corporation. It was there to make globs of money that it could then flush down the toilet.
When I say there is nothing Kodak could have done, I don't mean they could not have come out a with a product. What I mean is the model was based on selling consumables at a huge profit, then pissing that profit away. There was no way for them to make those profits on the cheap cameras they sold. They have not, for a long time,like Nikon or Canon with a tradition or selling $10,000 cameras. Kodaks innovation was the Advantix.
This was not competing with free or irrelevance due to a a change in power source. This was a complete hange in relationship to a product. Even if cameras were still not in phones, and cost $200, Kodak would still be toast. It is not economical to buy film and pay for prints that last a life time when one can print the stuff you want on demand for an equal cost, if you want.
The reason Kodak and Polaroid failed is the reason that firms should fail. They get too big and sales can't support the inefficiencies. The products are still in demand, ,just not at the same volumes. If we would allow and encourage such companies to fail, things might be much better.
The kindle fire may be an option. I have had limited luck with the FIre as Amazon seems to want to sell books, so I have not used as much for reading my work stuff.
The iPad mini is certainly a better form factor, lighter than many tablets, and maybe even has a large enough screen to read for older eyes. Of course, there are many android tablets that can say the same. In the end, the infrastructure for reading on a tablet exists. The only question is finding one that is confortable for individual use.
And cheap calls is all it is. They want to pay the same as everyone else. Look, I spent a lot of time living in rural areas in the US and elsewhere. I know the issues. I know the costs. But I am not asking anyone else to pay costs that I choose in incur. In other countries you have phone service. You just pay for a cell phone. And if you have to you pay for a booster station. That is all there is too it. There are very few areas in the US that have no cell reception, and I am sure most would work with a booster. Hell, in my house I don't have good cell reception. Do I go to the feds and demand a personal booster?
If you want reliable phone, do what others have done. Form a cooperative. Pull fiber to the community, and then have the individuals pull wire to their properties. Say this is too expensive, say that the feds should pay for it? Well them maybe you should vote for a liberal government who will tax enough to fund it?
What I feel is really funny is that somehow taxpayers are expected to foot the bill so that people can just pick up the phone whenever they want to just to chat, and we are expected to pay for that entitlement. Give me a break. When I was growing up we often did not talk to our extended family. Why? Because it was expensive and we could not afford it. Maybe once a week on sunday morning, but that was it. I guess we had the advantage is that we were literate so we wrote letters.
I normally am much more receptive to these complaints. We are a rich country so we should have universal reliable communication, health care, education, transportation, teleportation, rib eye, Helly Hansen clothing, but given that those people just voted in great majority against it, it seems a little over the top.
Chrome is version 23, so Firefix is still lame, and lord help IE stuck at version 10.
DRM for books is the reason Amazon know has control of the publishing and authors get paid what Amazon wants. Amazon put DRM on the kindle, Amazon made it difficult to put other books on the kindle, so kindle owners are tied to Amazon, and the kindle software expands that to most e reading. Publishers and authors have little control over revenue. Without DRM control goes to the right holders.
We see this movies. Blu ray and DVD is a format in which the end user does not own anything. If you don't have a player for the region you can't play it. Backups are nontrivial. Online copies can only be played on certain devices and are stored only online. So streaming is the thing, or renting, which tends to enrich a third party not the right holders. Who would not pay a bit for a movie that can play on VLC or stream to a tv. I would. But I am not going to pay for something that could be disabled at any time.
I try to be very careful about what I use other's equipment for. When I was younger I was less careful about computers, but then when i was younger there was not 10 years of ruling saying that there is no expectation for privacy if you use employers stuff. For instance, is there anything to stop your employer from listening to your telephone calls on phones the employer owns and pays for the operations. Not really. So we bring cell phones to work that we pay for completely. There is no ambiguity if an employer taps a personal phone.
Stories like this are important because it reminds us that using things we don't own for questionable purposes is not really such a good idea. Clearly older people, who grew up in a time maybe when assets were not tracked as carefully as they are today, or younger people who have not learned how carefully things can be tracked, need to hear this lesson. Clearly some believe that that you can steal equipment, use it for illegal activity, and still deserve the full protection of the law.
Of course a few god loving and brave physics teachers will state the obvious and state the infinite is reserved only for the devine, that math and science has never accepted infinity as result. Therefore, black holes indicate the foolishness of General Relativity and alternative theories must be put forth. So-called black holes are clearly part of the divine plan to cause the ultimate rapture as prophesied in the bible. This result from Relativity, like radio carbon dating, clearly indicates the ultimate inability of science to characterize the godly world, and therefore ultimate irrelevance to godly life.
Any physics teachers out there, and any parents who want their kids to have hope for their souls, must teach the controversy. This is the only way to ensure that salvation and proper science wins.
MS has been bringing more services in house. With Windows 8 and surface there is a definite vibe that it is ready to be a full system builder. Traditionally the hardware OEM has been a lucrative business only because of volumen and MS kickbacks, but perhaps MS thinks it can do better. There is really no indication that MS is pushing Surface to third party OEM, and some indication that it is more than willing to let them fail. So, yes, there may be great benefit to MS for Ultra books to fail. MS may think it can do better on MS Surface.
The mode is tablet use it untethered. That is why it is important to have many hours of use. Plug it in overnight, then use off and on all day. Tablets are also made to be used anywhere, which is why they do not have keyboards. As usual MS believes that the current use of Tablets is silly, and is creating a slightly modified product category. A tethered tablet with keyboard.
This will appeal to some people, like the thousand button mouse that so many like. However, for most work, a well designed single button mouse or track pad is just as usable if the software is designed for it. I can't imagine why I would want to have a tablet if most of my work required a tablet though. I bought a keyboard for my iPad, but seldom used it as I prefer the efficient laptop.
It was also funny because one machine bought had a special upgrade coupon to MS Windows 8(which is superflous as all machines bought recently can be upgraded, which makes me suspicious about the upgrade licensee as every who bought a computer recently can go for the free upgrade even if they do not use it). So we were told to keep the coupon even if we were not going to use it, just in case. It seems that most shopper were not even interested in the free upgrade.
I am still mostly on XP. It would nice to move to 7 as I like it quite a bit. But the rule of MS is that every other major upgrade is trash.
The thing is with Windows 8 there is a opportunity to place a superior OS on commodity hardware. Dell, being a relatively competent system builder, i.e. not a Gateway that just puts parts that fell off the back of a truck into a case, could create such an OS. The OS will really just be layers on top of Linux coupled with a nice GUI and well integrated application, but it could be enough to provide some competition, and provide some stability for those who do not want to move to phrenetic squares that keep people from productive work.
Really HP would be better, and it could be the one thing that saves it from oblivion, but some one needs to do it now. And they need to be paid. Whoever does will not be geting kickback from MS or the annoyware vendors, so the consumer is going to have to pay up.Of course the likleyhood of the average OSS person paying $50(in this case about 3%) more is about the same as them buying a a *nix based Macbook, since really to most people OSS is free beer, not freedom, but there we go. We will be stuck with MS, and everyone will be complaining, because it isn't worth $50 to have something better.
For the PC, right now a MS Windows 8 Pro upgrade for anything MS Windows Xp or newer is under $70. If they expect users to upgrade every year then $25 is about the right price. It will even the cash flow from upgrades and at the end of the day provide comparable cash.
I believe that the previous pricing structure for MS Windows was to encourage consumers and small bussiness to buy new machines rather than upgrade software. There was a time when an MS upgrade would be $200 while a new machine might be around $500. With MS clearly more willing to annoy the HP and Dells of the world, they can change this pricing. Anyway, who knows how much the 'real' 'full' version is going to cost. It could still be $100.
What I am waiting to see if MS will begin to give away a fully integrated MS Visual Studio. RIght now the breaking up of the Express pieces is just childish. I am not saying they should not have versions that are not $1000+, but expecting to overtake Apples with cheap apps when the cheapest real version costs $500 is just insane.